Julian Dorey Podcast #385 - “They’re Underwater!” - MIT Drone CEO on WW3, China Spy Drones & Submersive UFOs | Jesse Hamel
Feb 17, 2026
Jesse Hamel, former USAF lieutenant colonel and MIT grad who built drone autonomy at Victus, talks tech and tactics. He covers drone evolution, GPS-denied navigation and synthetic-GPS. He explores mass-produced swarms, China’s drone race, maritime and submerged autonomy, and strange aerial/subsurface sightings. Short, vivid conversations about military innovation, supply chains and real-world risks.
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Cheap Compute Sparked Drone Proliferation
- Cheap compute, open-source autopilots and hobbyist hardware scaled drone capability rapidly, enabling Ukraine-style kamikaze and loitering attacks.
- That democratization made precision munitions affordable and changed force economics worldwide.
Volume Beats Per-Unit Sophistication
- Modern conflict rewards mass: lots of cheap drones are often more decisive than a few expensive platforms.
- National security now demands industrial-scale production and doctrines for swarms, not just singular high-end systems.
GPS Is An Unacknowledged Achilles' Heel
- GPS is a fragile, faint signal designed decades ago and was not built for contested electronic or solar environments.
- Heavy reliance on GPS creates a systemic Achilles' heel across military and civilian infrastructure.
